The Hourglass’s engines vomited sharp, bitter-smelling greenish-purple smoke as Twila shoved the altimeter down as far as it could go. The roar of the engines going ‘Flank Speed’ nearly deafened her. A too-wide grin split her face even as the wind whipped in her face.
The Hourglass’s new Leftie and Rightie outperformed anything Twila had seen. With them going all-out, there wasn’t a ship over the Sunset Sea that could catch her!
Marianna thumped her shoulder and screamed in her ear to be heard. “Skipper! Jamis says they’re gaining on us!”
Twila looked over her shoulder, peering through the smog. Sure enough, the Gibson sloop had closed half the gap. Its green and yellow banners flapped in the wind as it rushed forward. In just a minute or two, they’d be in range.
“How?” Twila yelled, dumbfounded. There was no way another sloop could carry engines more powerful than Leftie and Rightie. The hull shook under her feet from their vibrations.
Becca shouted from the back [Long Five], where she and Jamis had nearly loaded the first of their shots. “They’re using sprinters! The other Wrights’ Apprentices back at Toll’s shop used to dream about getting their hands on a pair of sprinters! That’s gotta be it! They’ll run out of myst, then we can pull away!”
Twila nodded. “Hourglass needs Sprinters too.”
“Worry about your engines after you outrun that sloop!” Carter yelled, a high-pitched edge in his voice. He stared at the oncoming ship, eyes wide.
Twila nodded, trying to dive the Hourglass steeper. If they could build enough speed, that might buy a few minutes for their pursuer to run out of myst.
As the engines roared and the wind howled, Twila could see that the race was hopeless. The pursuing sloop had cut the distance in half again. She could see the ship rats loading their cannons–[Long Fives] just like the Hourglass’s!
The Hourglass’s condenser mast would be skimming the waves in seconds. There just wasn’t more time! But what other options did Twila have? Running wouldn’t work, and giving up meant joining Auntie Charlie, not saving her.
“Marianna! Check on the front gun! Then have Sam and Ellie bring the starboard [Puckle Gun] to port! We’ll flip around and try to use all our guns! Tell everyone not on a gun to get in my cabin until the other boat fires!”
The tiny girl hurried off toward the ship’s bow as Twila leveled off the altimeter and shoved on the ship’s speed dial. But Hourglass was giving all she had already.
The first cannon’s mystshot bloomed over the Hourglass’s bowsprit. A split second later, a boom drowned out the engines’ roar. The enemy ship’s bow cannon team reloaded even as it pulled up from its dive right behind Twila’s airship.
“Twi, the front gun’s ready! Rojir says it’ll load slowly, though. He’s hurting a lot!” Marianna said.
“Alright. We’re turning now!”
She grabbed the speed dial and spun it all the way to ‘Ahead Slow.’ She spun the wheel to the left as the ship's speed plummeted. Hard. The rudder shuddered as myst slammed into it, and the vessel whipped to port.
Twila opened her mouth to scream an order. But the bow and stern cannons fired seconds apart before she could. The twin booms and blooming mystshot lanced toward their pursuers. One missed.
The other didn’t.
Twila had no idea which gun had hit. All she knew was that a hole had punched into the sloop’s bow, just below the bowsprit. She thought that might be it for a moment, but then the airship kept pushing through the cloud of mystsmog.
Her crews were already reloading–neither bothering to clean their guns–as Twila pushed the Hourglass’s speed back up to ‘Flank Speed.’ Leftie and Rightie both coughed. Then they roared, and the airship jolted forward, quarterdeck shaking. Twila spun the wheel back to starboard. The Hourglass began turning, a wide arc that grew wider as the engines added more and more speed.
More speed, in fact, than the chasing airship could muster.
As Twila’s arc pulled the Hourglass away, she breathed a sigh of relief. She straightened out the wheel, and the ship straightened its course.
“Skipper! They’re gaining again!”
Sure enough, the pursuer quickly closed the gap. Four hundred yards. Three hundred. Two. One. Fifty—close enough that Twila could read its name, the Cat’s Paw—and see the crew’s eyes! Then its [Long Fives] fired at the Hourglass. The first caught brass armor. The second punched a hole into her airship’s hold.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Marianna! Check to see if anything important’s hit!” Twila spun the wheel and dropped speed. She couldn’t outrun the Sprinters. And [Anton’s Pocket Watch] was useless—she couldn’t jump back in time with it.
But hadn’t Skipper Anton used it to try to dodge problems?
Twila took a deep breath. She could hear the Cat’s Paw’s quartermaster shouting and screaming at its ship rats and crew from this close. She joined in. “Alright, rats! Get those [Long Fives] loaded faster! Sam! Ellie! Fire the [Puckle Guns]! Marianna, help them keep the Puckles loaded! Will, damage control belowdecks, please. Check your pistols and swords! We’re staying in tight!”
As the [Puckle Guns] started firing, mystsmoke filled the air between the two airships. Pistol shots bloomed between the two ships, filling the close gap with bursts of violet-emerald light.
The Cat’s Paw’s cannons fired again.
Before Twila could even see if they’d hit, she’d let go of the wheel. She cranked at [Anton’s Pocket Watch], the satisfying five clicks and the burst of purple light telling her it had worked. She quickly spun the Hourglass’s wheel, swinging the ship’s bow away from the Cat’s Paw. And from its guns.
Which went off with a crash.
Twila spun the wheel again, and the Hourglass pulled back to parallel with the Cat’s Paw. “Will! Any damage?”
“No, skipper,” the sad boy’s voice said. “The armor took both shots. It’ll be dinged up, though.”
“[Long Five] crews, fire as soon as you’re loaded!” Twila yelled. She weaved the Hourglass back and forth as the Cat’s Paw zig-zagged closer and then further away.
At the closest point, it happened.
The stern gun went off. Then the bow gun. Both hit. The first crashed into the deck just above the hold’s port holes, tearing part of the deck apart.
The second clipped an engine.
As Twila watched, the engine began pouring smog–but not the purplish smog of myst. Instead, jet-black smoke filled the gap between the two airships. It burned Twila’s nose in a way mystsmoke had stopped doing long ago. The engine continued running, slowly tearing itself apart. Then it exploded. Brass and wood shrapnel ripped across the gap between the two ships. Shards slammed into the Hourglass, sticking into the wooden hull and bouncing off its plate.
The Cat’s Paw plunged toward the ocean below.
As it crashed into the waves, Twila brought the Hourglass around and cut speed. “Crew! Lower the ladder and ropes! We’ll rescue anyone who surrenders and try to bring them back to Seapike.”
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.33 (Myst 12/12, Hit Points 2/2)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Platejack Coat (lvl. 2) Plated Coat (passive) +1 Hit Point]
[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]
[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]
[Gizmo #1 - Loaded Dice (lv. 2) - Roll the Bones (active, 1 myst/roll) - gain a random myst enhancement; Skill - Trickery]
[Gizmo #2 - Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4) Redo (active, 5 myst/5 seconds) - redo the last five seconds of time, with knowledge of what’s happening (1 minute to reset); Skill - Piloting]
[Gizmo #3 - Nola’s Embrace (lvl 2) Unknown Effect]
[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]
[Myst Battery - Condensing Battery Mk. 2 (lvl. 1) Myst Storage (passive) - 12 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill; Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/6 ticks]
[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]
[Weapon #2 - Heatblade (lvl. 2) Heat (active, 1 myst/tick) - cause the blade’s edge to superheat; Skill - Acrobatics]
[Weapon/Pair - Empty]
[Skill #1 - Trickery 2]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]